BOSTON — Red Sox ownership thinks David Ortiz and Clay Buchholz have been dragged through the mud unfairly, and they're fighting back.

Tom Werner, Red Sox chairman, wrote a column for RedSox.com on Friday questioning the media and "fact-less accusations" about Ortiz and steroids, as well as the idea that Buchholz may have doctored the baseball.

Werner wrote:

I fully acknowledge the right the media has to ask difficult questions and to express controversial opinions. Freedom of the press is fundamental in our culture.

They had the right, but was it right?

We're in a new media world, and fact-less accusations stick.

Werner as far as to bring Jackie Robinson's legacy into the equation, as well.

In the movie "42," which depicts Jackie Robinson's pioneering effort breaking the color barrier, we are reminded that baseball sets an example for society. Let's ask the media to also set an example.

Both the Ortiz and Buchholz controversies were certainly still alive Friday, if no longer at their height. Curt Schilling discussed his personal use of sunscreen as a pitcher, while Ortiz just a day before said he felt Dan Shaugnessy, the Boston Globe columnist who raised the question of his steroid use, was being discriminatory.

Shaughnessy also co-wrote Terry Francona's biography, "Francona: The Red Sox Years," a book that came out over the winter and did not paint ownership in a kind light.

Werner's not the first member of Red Sox ownership to respond to the allegations thrown at Ortiz and Buchholz. Red Sox president Larry Lucchino chimed in as well.

"That article was particularly offensive," Lucchino said of the Ortiz story. "It's sort of like saying 'When did you stop beating your wife?' It presumes a certain level of misconduct before there's any evidence whatsoever to suggest there is any misconduct. Ortiz should be celebrated for the hard work that he has put in and the kind of success that he has had through the opening part of this season, and not have it without justification thrown into some suspicion."